I rifled through tons of old memoirs from my high school days. Pulling out boxes and cases from shelves, there were papers scattered all over the floor and pens and pencils dropped in random places, but I was on a mission and vowed not to stop searching until I got answer. The boys wouldn’t give their side of the story to me? Fine, I’d just have to settle with finding it out myself.  Feeling more determined with every second of sleuthing, I reminded myself that though I knew everything about Jonghyun’s personality and habits, I was completely clueless about everything else.

Exactly how come I knew nothing about his parents, but Jonghyun knew every detail about my accident? How come Jonghyun was always so sick?

And why did I always think of Jaejoong’s face when I looked at Jonghyun’s-even though it had nothing to do with my feelings? Whenever I looked at them, I felt like they weren’t just acquaintances-there was something else hiding between them. And I was sure that I wasn’t going crazy-these were not hallucinations. I was completely determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.

While I was lost in thought, I hadn’t realized that I found a bunch of my old yearbooks. Grabbing them hungrily, I scanned the pages for any notes from Jonghyun or Jaejoong. They both went to my high school, and yearbooks often had little thoughts or messages from the graduating class. Flipping the pages quickly, my heart skipped a beat when I realized that I’d dug out something from their pictures.

Name: 김재중 Kim Jaejoong

Birthplace: 공주시, 충청남도 Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do

Dream job: Singer or actor

Favourite Quotation: “Always keep the faith.”

Webpage: KimJaejoong.cyworld.com

I doubted that Jaejoong even used his cyworld anymore, and I was absolutely sure that Jonghyun had never even laid eyes on the site, but the shred of hope caused me to run to my computer and boot it up. Brushing a stray hair from my face, I saw my reflection on the monitor as I waited for it to load. It was strange how I always passed the bathroom without thinking about checking my appearance, and barely hovered my fingers over the concealer anymore. Though I was still conscious of the red on my face, it didn’t feel as bad anymore. It didn’t feel like the end of the world.

And I was beginning to realize exactly how lucky I was.

I was alive. I hadn’t died. And I had such amazing people around me, like Yunho, who’s always there to support me. What would I do if I didn’t have him? Why was I being such a brat, complaining about how terrible I looked, how fat I was, or how my acne never seemed to go away-when I should have been looking inside of myself the whole time? I felt like I’d wasted time feeling self-conscious when I was constantly surrounded by people who considered looks second to my personality. I was truly very, very lucky to have such great friends-but in order to keep them, I realized that I had to spend more time caring for them than caring about my beauty.

Smiling at my new positive outlook, and feeling like I’d taken a fresh start, I quickly typed in Jaejoong’s webpage address. I was surprised that it was still there, and rolled my eyes as I saw a selca of Jaejoong, in all his shirtless glory. There wasn’t much on the page, but an extensive set of photos, and a bunch of what looked like images of new clothes and shoes that Jaejoong had gotten. Continuing to look at the album, nothing caught my eye until I saw a picture with Jaejoong’s arm around a girl. She had beautiful, long black hair, porcelain skin, and a model’s figure. Donning Asian features, her face was of a foreigner’s, and I assumed her to be mixed. However, that wasn’t what threw me off the most.

It was her eyes, which were blue as ice.

♩ ♪ ♫ ♬

“Ha Jae, a customer’s waiting for you outside.”

“Really? Who?”

“She didn’t say her name, but it seems urgent. She says that she’ll wait as long as it takes until she can meet you.”

Ha Jae walked outside, threw her apron on the kitchen counter, and dashed out into the dining area. She was surprised to be greeted by a very familiar girl, and remembered her as Yunho’s sister. Wondering why she’d shown up looking for her, she gave a small wave, and pulled out a chair by a nearby table. Her pretty face was masked with worry, and she kept biting her lip gently.

“_______-ah! What brings you here?” Ha Jae beamed at her and sat across from her.

“Oh, Ha Jae-I’m sorry for intruding. I know this seems a bit personal, but are you familiar with Kim Jaejoong?”

“Jaejoong? Yes - He’s my cousin. Why?”